Nisey ❀

Menu

Archive | January 2012

DON’T SAY “SOME DAY”¸.•*”♣

written by Denise Kennedy

A cloudy day can sometimes provide the perfect atmosphere for thinking……hmmmm don’t you think? Well today it did just that for me. Sometimes it is not so easy to put your fingers on those humble laptop keys, to try to communicate what it is that you want to share with the blogging world….and does anybody care?
I believe it is still worth the risk….of opening up your heart, letting the lessons you have learned reach out to the lives of others and choose even to share your vulnerability and also strengths. As you pour out those words, it is like placing soft footprints in the sand….for others to see, not only where you have been but where you are going. Don’t underestimate the words you write, for they can be the bright shining star in a darkened sky that a fellow traveler desperately needs to follow. God uses your words, He uses your hard days as well as your best days, to show others that we all walk this path in weakness and in strength, but together.
The following words motivated me to write today…
” I will get around to it some day….”, I heard her say as she passed me by on her cell phone. A total stranger to me, yet our hearts were linked simply by the phrase she used. A phrase we often read, or say. We plan to do it, we plan to achieve so much but rarely make it a reality. Today I decided, enough of the putting things off until another day…or the famous “some day” of my future!
“It is time to arise.” I told my head and my heart…It is time to awaken the dreams, the promises you made over the years, to your very own heart. Time to arouse the gifts, the talents, the exciting future that you believed you would see. It is not too late! Either you do it or it won’t happen, and it certainly will not happen if you do not try.
So I took time to really look at what is in my heart….What am I waiting for? What are the things I really want to see happen either in my life, or through my life to impact others? I took a nose dive and plunged deep inside my own passions and took a good look at what was there. I blew the dust off and tore down the cobwebs of my own making. To be honest, I battled against what I saw. I came face to face with the closed up boxes of my heart. The undiscovered oceans of my course. I stared at all of the unfulfilled plans before my eyes. Immediately I wanted to run away. I was afraid to feel anything. To dare to dream again. It is easier to live with no expectations I mused to myself. It is safer to close the door to my heart and decide to not live from that place. But curiosity drew me back to look inside.

This is what I saw…I saw the unpublished books, the unseen adventures and the many undeveloped photographs…the unsung songs, the people in my life that love and need the “real me”…I heard the unanswered calls to take a risk. I saw it…all there in my heart. It displayed itself there before me….and my dreams extended an invitation to me…to the adventure of a life time. Of my life time.
And my future waited. It waited for me. It asked me to reply to the invitation to live the adventure. But it wouldn’t always. I realized that the ‘some days” of my life are running out….I think I have all the time in the world, but really “some day” is in fact TODAY. So after this long stare at my heart, I took a deep breath, I inhaled courage again, and determination. Everyone wants a hero, a prince on a white horse, right? It is the age old wish of every princess. I still believe in romance. But today I urge you, to be a valiant hero in your own story. Lean over and kiss the lips of your own sleeping beauty, the sleeping desires within you. Reach out and awaken the noble steed inside you. Get ready to gallop. Gird up your loins for battle, the battle to see your dreams come true. You are not alone, the host of heaven cheers you on. The God of your heart goes ahead of you to make the way possible to achieve the dreams He has placed in you. Your companions are COURAGE and BRAVERY….They stand mighty beside you to protect you from DOUBT and FEAR!
I know them only too well, those days that you hear yourself say “some day”.
Well those words rob you of your future, and steal your reward. They chase away the very joy of life from your heart. You must banish those words from your mind, and decide that it is a new season. Open up your heart and say YES to the adventure that calls to you. Be a hero in your own story, in your own life. Be a hero in the lives of those around you who also need to chase those words away.

Time is too precious. You are a treasure.
Sleeping Beauty has been asleep too long! =)
Come on, I have the horses ready!

ღ~♣~ღ “YOU”RE COOLER THAN ICE!”

ღ~♣~ღ

“YOU’RE COOLER THAN ICE!“ ~ Who me? Yes you! Well I think so anyway! And I believe I am not the only one who thinks it! So you may as well go ahead and believe it =)

It is a strange little phrase I came up with myself yesterday, a ‘nisey~original’ you might say! Well an original to me and those I have mentioned it to. Which got me thinking about the other ‘idioms’ that mean the same if not similar thing….

Firstly, what is an idiom? An idiom is a group of words in current usage having a meaning that is not deducible from those of the individual words. For example, “to rain cats and dogs” – which means “to rain very heavily” – is an idiom; and “over the moon” – which means “extremely happy” – is another idiom. In both cases, you would have a hard time understanding the real meaning if you did not already know these idioms! I know all about these difficult phrases, as I am currently training to teach English as a foreign language.

So here are the results of the Nisey jury. I decided to only add the nice, complimentary ones I found. Also you will notice a common theme…can you find it? Make a comment at the end if you figure it out!!

CREAM OF THE CROP ~ Hmmm obviously, ‘crops’ don’t bring forth ‘cream’, milk does…..and yet when we hear this phrase we know to assume that what ever it refers to is the best of the pick, and a perfect choice in any setting. Despite the confusion in crops and cream we know it to mean the best and brightest! A nice compliment! If something or someone is in the cream of the crop, they are among the best of a class of things or people.

ICING ON THE CAKE~ When you get more than you bargained for! An added bonus in a relationship or agreement. It refers to an individual as well as an object or situation. If something or someone is the icing on the cake, or the frosting on the cake, it makes a good situation or a good result even better.

MY CUP OF TEA ~ Meaning something one enjoys or does well. When you say “You’re my cup of tea” you mean they are your favorite choice!

(Side note; We here in Ireland love our tea, so if we call you that, you better believe it is special. nisey)

APPLE OF MY EYE ~ Someone or something that one likes a lot. Often a father says this to his little girl. We know this to be true even in the Bible, where God speaks of us as being the apple of His eye! If someone is the apple of your eye, it means you like them very much!

APPLE OF HIS EYE ~ “… for he who touches you touches the apple of His eye.” Zechariah 2:8 NJKV

THE UPPER CRUST ~ If you are one of the upper crust, you are a member of society’s highest class and one many will want to walk through life with.

CREME DE LA CREME ~ You are again the cream of the crop, and the best of the best by far.

A SHARP COOKIE ~ Someone who is not easily deceived or tricked is a sharp cookie, and someone you can trust.

A GOOD EGG ~ Means you can trust them with anything and rely on their integrity.

YOU ARE THE MILK OF HUMAN KINDNESS ~ Someone who has, or is full of the milk of human kindness is naturally kind and compassionate to others.

HE/SHE IS AS KEEN AS MUSTARD ~ If someone is as keen as mustard, they are very eager, enthusiastic or motivated.

THEY ARE LIKE TWO PEAS IN A POD ~ To say that two people are like two peas in a pod, means that they are very similar in possibly appearance or interests. It can also mean they belong together in an intimate way.

YOU ARE WORTH YOUR SALT ~This expression is used to say that a person who does their job well would not be managed without, That they are invaluable and priceless.

LIKE FIRST WATER ~ Something that is of the first water, is an object or person of the finest or exceptional quality. Being compared to a diamond of a person, rare and precious if found.

AS SWEET AS HONEY ~ Means that everybody likes you & you appeal to everyone who knows you.

IN ONE’S SALAD DAYS ~ in one’s youth (This is one I had not heard of before.)

YOU ARE THE SALT OF THE EARTH ~ good/basic/honest/ordinary people

EYE CANDY ~ When a person is very attractive, they can be described as eye candy – sweet to look at! A compliment.

NICE AS PIE ~ If a person is nice as pie, they are surprisingly very kind and friendly.

SWEET AS A GUMDROP ~ This means that someone is very nice or pretty.

A TOUGH COOKIE ~ A tough cookie is a person who will do everything necessary to achieve what they want, a strong person who is determined to be the best they can be.

So did you find the theme? Did you pick out your favorite one or possibly the one you plan to use to remind someone special what they mean to you? Sometimes we forget to compliment our own dear hearts, to see value in our own person. So maybe you can use these to add a little value to your opinion of yourself. Personally I like my own created idiom, “YOU”RE COOLER THAN ICE!”, mainly because you cannot get much cooler than ice, and it has a quirky ring to it.

But there is one that has struck me today, and indeed brought back pleasant memories of years ago, when I first heard it…

YOU ARE THE APPLE OF HIS EYE…

What does this saying “apple of His eye” mean? Many have heard it in the phrase spoken by a father to his daughter or “daddy’s little girl was the apple of his eye”. It’s a phrase that reveals how much someone is loved by another person. It speaks of intimacy, safety, love, warmth and care. It is nice to have a relationship with your father that cultivates this kind of love. Whether you did or you didn’t here on earth, you have a Father in Heaven who thinks you are the “Bees Knees!” and the “Wasps Ankles!” (another one I heard)…actually He thinks you are even more special than these. If He cares about sparrows and knows if even one of them falls to the ground, than how much more does He care about you! The following passage speaks volumes…

“For the LORD’s portion is His people; Jacob is the place of His inheritance. He found him in a desert land and in the wasteland, a howling wilderness; He encircled him, He instructed him, He kept him as the apple of His eye.” (Deut 32;11)

Are you in a wasteland today? A desert place? A dry and weary land where there is no water let alone ice? Do you need to be protected from malicious tongues or words of slander? Do you need someone stronger than you to encircle you and keep you as the precious one you are?

Earlier when I mentioned this verse, “…he who touches you touches the apple of His eye.” (Zechariah 2:8) We are reminded that whoever messes with you or treats you without regard, will have God to deal with. You are the apple of His eye, the one He loves and cherishes. He encircles you, wraps His love around you (whether you feel it or not)…He is the One who never slumbers or sleeps, but keeps watch over you. So today, remind your dear heart that you are PRICELESS, precious and the apple of the eye of God! And when you lay your head on your pillow tonight, “REST WELL…FOR GOD IS AWAKE!”

A lesson from a Ladybird…✤ ✤

By Denise

The other day, while reading by my window, I saw a lovely shiny red ladybird (in some countries you call them ladybugs)…Anyway it was desperately trying to find a way to the sunny outer side of my window pane – it clung to the glass in search of a door of escape, I’m sure it had one eye on the glass and one eye on the freedom outside…but it failed at each attempt!

I decided to drop my book and help this little tiny creature find it’s way out –

I could see how to set it free far easier than it could, from it’s vulnerable position…so I grabbed a nearby greeting card and slowly approached the hesitant tired bug, planning to help it slide carefully on to a corner of the thin card – At first the little ladybug seemed to work with me and allowed itself to be transported from the glass to the card pretty easily, but just when I had almost lifted it to the desired open window, the little red lady jumped from the card and landed on the window sill below, even further away from it’s original starting position, and must have been quite dizzy from the fall. My next attempt to carry it to the outdoors was even harder….it was now not as trusting as before!

I kept gently trying to slide the insect on to the card, with little whispered promises of “Come on, it’s OK!”
But all failed attempts…resulting in the ladybug falling several times and seeming to be determined to not cooperate with me – On one such fall it landed on it’s shell with it’s legs scrambling in the air for something to hold on to so as to turn itself right-side-up again!! It then ran and hid from me, in a corner, obviously feeling I was it’s enemy rather than a friend.
Eventually after it rested a little it appeared again, I gently slid it on to the friendly greeting card, and whispered softly again to it’s dizzy head…
“Trust me, I’m not trying to kill you – I am trying to set you free!… and Viola! it held on for the greeting card ride, and was soon sliding off the edge of it’s comfort zone into the great outdoors, leaving captivity behind..and finally breathing in the fresh air it had been merely looking at from the other side of the glass…”FREEDOM!” I said to myself as it vanished away into the great green world outside.

I sat back on my bed and thought for a moment about what I had just said out loud to a little trapped ladybug…”Trust me, I’m not trying to kill you, I am trying to set you free…!!”
Hmmmm…Suddenly I felt like a little ladybug myself. Praying for open doors or windows in my life…but running from the hand that can take me there! Or desperate for changes, and searching for a sweeter place than where I feel my feet are right now …but no matter how I attempt to find the right window or door or opening it just seems out of reach for me, but I just have to be still & let someone bigger MOVE ME!!…There are some things you just cannot do alone!

God just wants me to trust HIM – It may hurt, it may be scarey (especially if you are afraid of heights) But if I just hold on and wait then I will see what He has promised…I may not know where I am going next but if I keep the right attitude, and am ready to MOVE when He ‘lifts me’ then He will work out how I get there too! I just have to be available and willing to agree and obey and surrender to whatever His hand plans next…
Are you like the ladybug?…You see where you want to be and the freedom you desire, but you cannot seem to get your legs (or heart) there, or you may have no idea where you want to be except you have a deep restlessness to move in a new direction…either way we all need Him to do the “moving” and as we trust His gentle hand even in pain and confusion, we can be sure that He will cause all things to work out for our good – We may never know what He is doing behind our backs, until He reveals it before our eyes…

There may even be a struggle to believe something is good for us, but He will give us the courage and strength to handle the situations He allows us to walk through…He may even give it back to us completely changed and even greater than it was before!
So I pray that just as I desperately am longing for freedom and direction on the other side of my window pane (and pain) that when He comes with His greeting card to pick me up and move me,

I hope I come running with humility, trust, willingness and excitement to let Him take me where freedom waits! I am glad that God can use the simple ladybugs of my life to remind me that HE KNOWS where I am and how to MOVE me where He wants me to be, and He has provided all the wisdom I will need for when I get there – I hope I never take for granted these lessons from my window sill, that He sends to remind me of His amazing greatness in my life.

May we always want what He wants even in the questions and the waiting!
Please be ready to go when He comes to “Move You”
Love
Denise

❀ ~ Hey Friends, please lend me your eyes and attention, while I introduce you to the wonderful, insightful and brilliant writings of the talented Dawn Chambers Hood. This is Dawn’s debut appearance on my WordPress blog and I hope you will give her a hearty warm welcome, and drop her a comment or two. I love this piece Dawn, beautiful! ~ ❀

♥Peace, Denise

❀ ~ God in Dirty Water

by

Standing on the Jordan-side banks of the Jordan River I could hardly contain my excitement. I felt shaky with adrenalin and a joy that was manifesting itself in an open-mouth, squinty-eyed smile on my face. How could a simple body of water invoke such strong emotion? It was a small river, what this Southern girl would even call a creek. And directly across from where my feet were planted I could clearly see an Israeli guard station, flag flying proudly and soldiers watching carefully. No white-capped rush of rapids here, not even a significant current to focus on. But standing here, watching the bull rushes sway gently in the breeze, ‘listening’ to the quiet, I was consumed with the reality of the Word of God. Jesus stood here. In the flesh. Bare feet and soaking wet hair, Jesus was baptized in this same water! Looking around, it occurred to me that the voice of His Father from Heaven breaking this calm stillness must have sounded like thunder.

Leaving my hotel room earlier that morning, I had grabbed an empty water bottle for the express purpose of retrieving 16 ounces of the Jordan River. And now I held in my hands my very own, very personal bottle of history. Jesus said throughout the book of John that He was in fact “Living Water” and those words had never seemed more alive than in that moment. Thrilled with my accomplishment, I carried my bottle up the path and set it down on a section of deck railing to wipe off the excess water. Sealing the cap with masking tape, I placed the bottle in my handbag for safekeeping until I could nestle it safely in my luggage for my trip back to the States. Struck by the sight of my bottle sitting on that simple plank of wood, surrounded by beautiful shade trees, I quickly snapped a picture to send home to my children by email. They had enjoyed being able to see where I visited each day during my trip to the Middle East.

Not until I was back on the tour bus editing pictures on my digital camera did I realize what had been captured in that photograph. There to my surprise was the bottle’s label, clear as a bell, proclaiming Truth in a way only God could orchestrate. Pure Life, the label read, plain white words on a simple blue label. And there, in those 16 ounces of water encased in clear plastic, was a profoundly personal moment for God and me.

Pure Life – the kind of Life that only Jesus can offer. He IS pure life, reaching out to those in need – those who hurt physically, emotionally, and spiritually – offering the pure life of a personal relationship with Him. Alive and real. Not a life that looks pure on the outside, but a life that is pure on the inside because of His sacrifice, His obedience, His heart.

A few days later, my bottle and I made it safely home. It now sits on a shelf in my office where I am reminded that God delights in surprising us with His presence. We need only slow down long enough to look for Him to realize that He is everywhere. I am awed by the realization that the God of the Universe so passionately desires to make Himself known to us. Pure Love. Pure Life.

I want to introduce you to a great friend and writer Rob Carley ~ He is walking a path of grief after the passing on of his adorable wife Jean, whom we all miss so much! I want to make him my first invited guest blogger ~ I hope you are soul fed! Love Denise

Choose life!

It’s about the time when on a winters morning the crisp silent air is occasionally jingled by the lonely footsteps of a milk delivery or a newspaper drop or a Christmas party reveler beginning the lonely walk home with party hat askew and tatty Chris Kindle gift clutched tightly in a frozen hand. It’s a time when life hangs between the memories of yesterday and the hopes for tomorrow. In this small parcel of life is the darkest hour. It’s as if the candle of past has been extinguished and we await the burst of light as the match of future strikes and ignites tomorrow’s possibilities. It is a place where all things are possible. Imagination has property here. A shore front property with amazing views but in an exposed setting. In this time ones mind can wish the best or wonder the worst. In this time our hearts can dance or die. We can sing or sink. We can choose life or death. Often our pain or loss screams out an invitation to us to pitch our tent towards hopelessness but a still small voice beckons to us to dwell in what old time gospelers referred to as Beulah land.

My Aunt Charlotte who is now singing in heavens choir used to sing a chorus (there’s a word we don’t use in church now!) and in it was a line

“Oh Beulah land oh Beulah land on heavens higher mount I stand”… that sounds such a glorious location.

It sounds like a VIP area for overcomers, it almost sounds like an exclusive area. I guess it is but it’s more a place we are carried to rather than a place we climb to. Arrival is by right and choice. As Christmas arrives we celebrate the arrival of Jesus who came to redeem a people and give them unrestricted access to heavens riches. He came to bring abundant life to those who choose to follow. He offers us a way to peace and freedom just based on that word gift. It’s a done deal a finished product a total whole shebang! When we were kids and even now when we are bigger kids our mother would often tell us to choose life, what wisdom what simple truth. You see in this quiet hour when the flowing waters of communication are stilled two voices call to my heart, the voice that says all is lost and or the voice that says the best is yet to come. I will choose which one gets my heart.

There is a native Indian tale that says something like this ~ Two wolves called despair and hope are fighting a viscous fight to the death battle. The little boy asks which one will win?

Like this:

Contentment; The Oxford dictionary describes it as ~ “a feeling of happiness or satisfaction with what you have: The good feeling that you have when you have achieved something or when something that you wanted to happen does happen:

Do you live here? Do you go there frequently or is it a place you long for? I feel qualified to ask these questions because I too am asking myself them. So it is OK to be honest, brutally honest but at least be honest. You don’t have to tell me the answer, or anyone else for that matter, but you cannot hide the answer from your own heart. Is something stirring within you now?

So how did I arrive at this junction, this question about contentment? Well I am on the journey of trying to learn it. There are times when it is easy to feel JOY and happiness, when circumstances have ‘rocked on’ exactly as you wanted. When the flowers grow exactly where you wanted them, when it rains precisely when you need it to and when your favorite things happen in your favorite way! When life never throws a curve ball and there are no obstacles to your dreams coming true, it can be a simple thing at these times, to be content.

So were we born content? I don’t believe so, I believe we begin to learn to be content even as children when things don’t go the way we want or lessons come along to teach us that the world or those living in it, will not always be able to please us. So give yourself a break, it is OK to admit that you are learning to be content. I did just that this morning. I exhaled a deep sigh, dropped my shoulders from their tense raised up position and gave myself permission to say I am not there yet, and I am not as content at all as I would like to be. Not only am I aware of the fact that I need desperately to learn to be content, but I am making a choice to pursue it. I am choosing to engage my heart, mind, body and soul in the activity of learning to live on the street named contentment. I feel afraid if I am honest. It will require changes in my expectations and a certain measure of discipline. Maybe I will have to evaluate my desires and my dreams.

But, what if it is too hard? …And then it came, a sweet soft voice, reminding me that I cannot even begin this endeavor alone. I cannot even find the starting point or the destination mark. All I can do is position my heart in the humble state of starting with honesty. Nothing of any value or real progress happens in our lives or relationships or decisions without genuine honesty about where we are. Maybe that is a new concept for you? It is a place of courage and determination, and it starts first with an honest look at your own heart.

Whether you believe in God or not, or whether you ever read the Bible or not, there is a worldwide hunger for contentment. The moment I said the word you were hooked, or why did you bother to even read any further? Did it intrigue you, as it did my own heart this very morning? Good, that means you know it is deserving of your attention and that something needs to be looked at.

So what is contentment? Is it having all you want, the perfect life, the dream marriage or single life, the fast car or grandest material possessions? Is it being healthy, rich, famous, or beautiful? For each of us it may mean some or all of those things. So, let’s say you get all of the things that should make you content, WOO HOO!! You have arrived and have unpacked your bags at destination contentment. Then one day everything changes, your world falls apart, and you cannot control it. What then? The Bible talks about learning to be content regardless of our circumstances ~ Gulp! ~ Hard to imagine isn’t it? I am gulping right along with you! I have met people who do not believe in God, and though they have walked a hard road they still seem to have found contentment. When I asked them how this is possible without God? They say they just choose it, in their own will power and strength. Not easy.

Believers have an oasis of strength in God to draw from in order to do this, and yet we openly and honestly struggle to learn to be content in our challenging circumstances. I believe the ground that exists between reality and our expectations, is the place where disappointment lives! It is the place where dreams are shattered or loss or illness come and steal our perspective or our belief that a certain event or thing would or would not happen. We are faced with the truth of what we really believe about God. We are faced with the obligation to find a way out of our despair. That is when we have to choose to learn to be content. It is not a mind over matter thing, but it starts in our mind. It starts with an honest, hard, humble (and any other ‘h’ words you want to add in) look at what we really feel contentment is. It does not come naturally, it comes supernaturally! It does not come over night, it comes slowly, deeply, painfully but with a promise of joy. real joy that circumstances cannot steal away in a phone call or bad report.

I believe most of us would admit that we are not content. Some are not content with the impact they are having in this world, and that is a different kind of contentment. What I am talking about is that peace that surpasses all understanding, that joy that fills every nook and cranny of your soul.

Imagine if you will, that I have a room in my heart, it has a door leading into it. On the door is a sign, with the name contentment written on it. Today I decided to open that door, although hesitantly, but never the less opening it. Once inside I looked around, and was not at all shocked that it was quite spacious and empty. You see there is a lot more space for contentment in my life than I had otherwise thought. I want my contentment room overflowing, full of life, full of God, full of gifts, full of flowers of joy, overflowing with hope and faith. So much so that I can share my contentment with others who have forgotten about the hunger they have for it or indeed their loss of it. maybe you had never before admitted that you have been living for years with out it?

So at the start of what the world calls a new year, I want a new room in my heart to begin to explode with life. First it begins by placing your hand on the door knob and turning it, opening the door and allowing truth and time and God to have their way in working together to make all things new in you. We could choose to ignore this room, and carry on pretending that we are fine and don’t need to learn to be content no matter how hard the circumstances are, but is that not tiresome to try to keep a mask on our disappointments, when really all of us struggle with them.

I say open the door, I know I am. I am allowing God’s gentle yet powerful wind to blow through this room, to rearrange the furniture and put things in their rightful place. Some things may stay exactly as they are, but I will have changed. I will find out if I truly trust Him as I say I do. He will show me the sovereignty of His will. I will have learned that the true secret of contentment is in learning that God is good no matter what I see, come what may, day in and day out, rain or shine, for better or worse, for richer or poorer, or in sickness or health.

He is good and He is faithful. This is the truth and only when we can admit that we need to learn to be content can He really take us on an adventure that nothing can ever compare to! When we come to the place of admitting that we are disappointed, only then can healing really begin. Only then can our perspective be strengthened by a God who really wants that kind of real relationship with us. Then we can say with Paul in the book of Philippians:

11 ” Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: 12 I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. 13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Phil 4: 11 – 13)

I have not yet arrived, nor do I assume to understand all the workings of God’s will in my life, or yours. But all I do know, is that our own understanding fails us, as does our own strength. So come, let us reason together, let us choose to at least start to learn to be content, and allow God to plant flowers along the way, and cause our souls to blossom with joy and hope like never before.

Open the door, decide to let your heart move into the street called contentment….It is never too late!